The Charlotte Jewish News -December 2006 - Page 12
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Richard
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Pradential
Carolinas ReaHy
3420 Toringdon Way. Suite 200
Charlotte. NC 28277
Community News
Jeff Katz, Chopped Herring, and the
Crazy Mezuzah
How a Conservative Jewish Republican Came to
Charlotte Radio
By Amy Krakovitz
It’s not exactly a clear and
straight road from law enforce
ment to radio personality, but
Philadelphia native Jeff Katz
blazed his pwn trail. While on
the Philadelphia police force
for 4-1/2 years, he helped out
his fellow officers in the police
union by writing stories for
newspapers and appearing on
the radio and television. He
was such a natural in broadcast
ing that he was mistaken for a
radio guy who was helping out
the police union, when the oppo
site was true.
His first real job in radio was as
a salesman on an easy listening
The Chief Judge on the High Court of Rough
Justice: Jeff Katz hosts WBT's 3-6 PM radio
slot, Monday through Friday.
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station. “It was like the
Mantonvanni string version of ‘A
Funky Cold Medina,”’ Katz says
of the musical format. But, when
it comes to his salesmanship: “I
was pretty much the worst sales
man in the history of radio.” When
the announcer from the overnight
shift was leaving the radio station,
Katz asked for the spot. “‘I think
we can get along without you [in
sales],’” he quotes his sales man
ager.
From there Jeff built a reputa
tion as a conservative spokesman
in markets like Atlantic City,
Hartford, Indianapolis, Sacramento,
Boston, Las Vegas, Philadelphia,
and most recently San Francisco.
It is his politically conservative
persona that surprises some who
may have a stereotypical view of
Jewish people from large cities in
the north. Always ready with a
clever remark, Katz joked, “My
mom was much more disturbed
when she found a copy of
National Review magazine in my •
room than when she found a copy
of Playboy magazine.” But he’s
aware that most people are taken
aback when a nice Jewish boy is
associated with conservative
issues. “I got an award a couple of
years ago from Shomrim, which is
the Jewish police organization. I
mentioned ... to my boss [that] I
needed to take the evening off to
get this award. He sort of looked
at me and I said, ‘Yeah, it’s from
the Jewish police organization.’
And he said, ‘Oh, will both of
them be there?’”
Katz couldn’t be more thrilled
to be in Charlotte. “In terms of the
radio business, if you look at it on
paper, it doesn’t make any sense,”
he explains. “Why do you leave
market #4 and come to market
#33? Or take a paycut to go from
San Francisco to Charlotte? Why
try desperately to sell a house in
California when there’s no real
housing market left in California?
And the real reason is that we’ve
got three little kids and we just
weren’t going to raise them in the
Bay Area. It wasn’t an area where
the residents shared our views,
where they shared our values,
where they were concerned about
the things we were and so we
wanted some place where we
could raise our children and be
surrounded by people who, gener
ally speaking, felt the way we did
about a lot of important issues,
values [and] morals.”
As the “Chief Judge on the
High Court of Rough Justice”
on WBT weekday afternoons
3-6 PM, Katz has found a wel
come niche. “I have found the
audience in Charlotte to be fun
damentally very friendly, very
receptive. Whether people are
necessarily agreeing or not,
there’s a certain politeness I
have found in Charlotte radio
that I have not found else
where. My views resonate a lit
tle bit more with the audience
in Charlotte than in San
Francisco,” he laughs. “The
Charlotte audience is also very
educated and well informed. They
know about issues, a lot of nuance
that you don’t find in other cities.
So I’ve been very impressed.
“I think part of it has to do with
WBT,” he continues. “A station
like WBT is rare at this point in
America. It’s one of those stations
people grow up with. There’s
more that’s expected of people
who are part of a WBT-type radio
station than would be expected of
other radio stations. So there’s a
real community sense and sense of
ownership on the part of listeners
and residents of Charlotte. It’s
their radio station and they
demand a lot of it. And so I think
that’s reflected in the listener-
ship.”
Katz is also trying to find a
niche in Charlotte’s Jewish com
munity. “I’m sort of synagogue
shopping I guess you could call
it,” Katz explains. “1 spent Rosh
HaShanah at the Charlotte Torah
Center. Yom Kippur at Ohr
HaTorah. Services a couple of
weeks ago at Temple Beth El.” In
addition to Jewish religious life,
he is anxious to establish himself
in Jewish communal life in
Charlotte, as well. “I’m in the
process of organizing a chapter of
the Republican Jewish Coalition
here. ... I’m very anxious to be
involved here. I have on my desk
the papers for the Bernstein
Leadership Group. I’d done some
thing similar to that with the
American Jewish Committee in
San Francisco. I wound up being
named to the Board of Directors
of the AJC in San Francisco. I saw
the program name and I’m apply
ing for that. I want to be as active
as possible.
“My dad died five days before
my oldest son was bom,” Katz
continues, as he explains his re
attachment to Judaism. “I went
from having a dad to being a dad
in the course of five days. And it
was tough. It was a very bizarre
situation. And I can remember
‘cause we were living away. My
folks lived in Florida. My wife
obviously was pregnant. My dad
knew that she was pregnant. He
knew that he was going to have a
grandson. And I debated with my
wife and my mom, do I come back
to Florida to see my dad, to be
there for the funeral? And my
mom said, ‘Look, you’ve got to
realize your responsibility - and
(Continued on page 15)